“Symphony of Illumination”
←	HIMYM episode 7x12 (148)	→
First aired: December 5, 2011
Director: Pamela Fryman
Writer: Joe Kelly
Barney's Blog
Images (19)

When Robin receives bad news, she decides to lie about it to the gang. Meanwhile, Marshall hangs Christmas decorations on the house in the ‘burbs with help from his neighbor.

Contents 1 Recap 2 Continuity 3 Gallery 4 Memorable Quotes 5 Notes and Trivia 5.1 Goofs and Errors 5.2 Allusions and Outside References 5.3 Music 5.4 Other Notes 6 Guests 7 Podcast 8 Reception 9 References 10 External Links 11 Comments

RecapEdit

This episode begins not with Future Ted telling his children how he met their mother, but instead with Robin's future kids. Future Robin asks them if she's ever told them the story of how she met their father, then skips ahead to when she told him she was pregnant where it is revealed that Barney is their father.

Barney makes rude comments to Robin who punches him each time. Barney is shocked to find out that Kevin is not the father since Robin and Kevin haven't slept together yet so if she is pregnant then Barney is the father. Robin then faints because Barney exclaims "That's... Wonderful! I'm gonna be a daddy!"

Later at the bar, Barney and Robin argue about why Barney is happy about it and why Robin isn't, and Ted, Lily, and Marshall walk in. Marshall is carrying a giant stocking for their baby that his grandmother started the day Lily and Marshall got married. She died before she could finish it. Marshall explains that he is going to beat the number one visited Christmas Light show.

Barney volunteers Robin and himself to go with Lily to "We B Babies" where Lily is going to make her baby shower list and Barney sets out to prove to Robin that having kids isn't a big deal. But when Barney meets his old best friend who had a child after a one night stand, he changes his mind about Robin having a baby.

The next day they see Dr. Sonya who tells them that Robin isn't pregnant and Barney and Robin celebrate, but later Robin is asked to come back in where she finds out she can't have a baby. She thinks about telling her friends, but she didn't want to have to put up with what they would do when she told them. Ted would try to make everything better by making her a ton of comfort food, massaging her shoulders, and stressing her out even more. Lily would start crying and Robin would just end up comforting her. Marshall would ask her a bunch of questions she didn't know the answer to, and Barney would bend over backwards to try to make her laugh, and then when that didn't work, he would literally bend over backwards.

When Ted asks Robin what's wrong, she says the first lie that came into her head: she can't be a Canadian Olympic pole vaulter because she is too tall. Following the ridiculous lie, Ted, Barney, and Lily all begin doing exactly what Robin was afraid of.

Meanwhile, as Marshall brings the many Christmas Lights he bought to his house in Long Island, a neighborhood boy comes and tells him he wished he could put lights up, but his dad is too busy. Marshall invited him to come help "Mr. E" put them up, but once Marshall is on the roof Scott drops the ladder and steals Marshall's sandwich and throws a party at his house.

Robin goes with Ted, Lily, and Barney (while Marshall is still on the roof) to "We B Babies" again, and Lily notices that Robin is quite visibly upset. Robin tells her that she never intended on being a "pole vaulter," but now that she's been told that she can't, it's heartbreaking, just in case she ever decided that she wanted to do it. She leaves the store crying when Ted shows her a Canadian-esque onesie.

At the bar, Lily, Ted and Barney are trying to figure out why Robin's upset. Ted assumes that it's because she's homesick (due to the fact that she left after seeing the onesie with a maple leaf on it). Back at the apartment, Ted tries to cheer up Robin with plane tickets to Cleveland to spend Christmas with him. She refuses and gets mad, saying that it's not his job to comfort her, and leaves with a carton of eggnog.

Robin goes for a walk in Central Park, where it is revealed that she was imagining the whole narration of her talking to her kids. When she gets back to the apartment, she walks in to see that Ted has prepared a whole 'Symphony of Illumination' for Robin. Robin starts crying in Ted's arms. Future Ted reveals that she never became a "pole vaulter" but a famous journalist, a successful businesswoman, a world traveler, and, apparently, a bullfighter.

ContinuityEdit

• Robin revealed she's pregnant to Barney in The Rebound Girl.
• Scott is seen "eating a sandwich" inside Marshall's house. This running gag is first in How I Met Everyone Else.
• Randy is mentioned again, first seen in Rebound Bro and gone into further depth in Canning Randy.
• Ted again uses his "detective skills", previously seen in Dowisetrepla, Cleaning House and Glitter.
• When Ted tells Robin it's his job to cheer her up, Robin says it isn't. Then they say "Yes it is" (Ted) and "No it's not" (Robin) twice, which is the exact same dialogue from right before their first kiss in Purple Giraffe, but reversed.

GalleryEdit

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:Symphony of Illumination images.

Memorable QuotesEdit

Robin:	I am pregnant.
Barney:	Are you sure you are not just getting fat? *gets punched in the face by Robin*

---

Barney:

So you're pregnant? Huh! Looks like nobody told your boobs. *gets punched in the face by Robin again*

---

Ted:	I miss stockings. My step-dad Clint made us get rid of anything that reminds him of the commercialization of Christmas.
Lily:	I thought you said he dresses up as Santa?
Ted:	Yeah, but to protest gender stereotypes, he plays Santa as a woman – though he keeps the beard. The result … is … disturbing.

---

Lily:	Are you okay?
Robin:	Yeah, yeah. I guess this, erm... this "pole vaulting thing" is finally hitting me.
Lily:	I don't get it Robin, did you really wanna be a pole vaulter?
Robin:	No. No, I was, eh... I was always adamantly against having erm... a, a "pole vaulting career", even though, it's what most women want.
Lily:	Most women wanna be a pole vaulter?
Robin:	In Canada, it's very big up there. You know, it's, it's meet a nice guy, get married, "vault some poles". But I never wanted that. Of course, it's, it's one thing not to want something, it's another to be told you can't have it. I guess it's, it's just nice knowing that you... you could, some day, do it, if you changed your mind. But now, all of a sudden, that door is closed.
Lily:	What about the one where you ski and shoot, at the same time. That seems like something you'd be good at.

—Robin tells Lily how she feels about her being infertile, by using a metaphor. However, Lily doesn't get the true meaning of what Robin is saying

---

Future Ted:

Kids, your aunt Robin never did become a pole-vaulter. But she did become a famous journalist, a successful businesswoman, a world traveler, she was even briefly a bullfighter (that's a funny story, I'll get to that one later). But there was one thing your aunt Robin never was; she was never alone.

—Robin accomplished a lot even though she never became a pole vaulter (her metaphor for being a mother)

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Notes and TriviaEdit

Goofs and ErrorsEdit

• Although Randy doesn't work at GNB anymore, Lily regards him as "the guy you work with".
• Robin is talking to her and Barney's imaginary kids in his apartment but his Stormtrooper is on the right side of the couch when it's suppose to be on the left.
  • This could be Robin imagining her own redesign of the apartment.

Allusions and Outside ReferencesEdit

• Marshall says that those lights will be seen from outer space, like in the movie Deck the Halls.
• Robin says she would not go to Cleveland with Ted for 125 million dollars paid over six years, the amount that the Cleveland Cavaliers offered LeBron James, who nevertheless left for the Miami Heat.
• Marshall mentions Mannheim Steamroller while Robin mention AC/DC.

MusicEdit

• Highway to Hell - AC/DC

Other NotesEdit

• When Robin starts talking to the kids and after she tells them that they aren't real the stormtrooper from Barney's apartment can be seen in the right side of the image. This implies the story is told as if she and Barney were still together.
• In No Pressure, Marshall says that it took Ted eight hours to set up the Christmas lights for Robin.

GuestsEdit

• Noah Schnacky - Robin's (imaginary) son
• Andra Nechita - Robin's (imaginary) daughter
• Vicki Lewis - Dr. Sonya
• Chase Ellison - Scott
• Todd Grinnell - Insane Duane
• Danielle Weeks - Sheila

PodcastEdit

On set with Neil Patrick Harris.

ReceptionEdit

The episode attracted 11.51 million American viewers, making it the fourth most viewed episode of the entire series.^[1] In Canada the episode was viewed by 1.028 million viewers, placing sixth for the night. ^[2]
The episode received positive reviews. Donna Bowman of the AV Club graded the episode an A, observing that "If this episode is any indication—in what (HIMYM) can accomplish, because of what we’ve come to feel about the characters and because of the confidence with which it is moving forward in its overarching story—HIMYM has never been healthier". ^[3]
Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave this episode a 4.8 out of 5, praising Cobie Smulders' performance. ^[4]
Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode 8 out of 10. ^[5]

References Edit

External LinksEdit

• Symphony of Illumination at the English Wikipedia
• Symphony of Illumination at the Internet Movie Database
• Symphony of Illumination at TV.com

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